Artist Statement

 

Continuing (pre)Occupation of an Un-Married Uncle

 

With its origins in mainstream handiwork or hobby, the work of Martin Casuso involves the deliberate shift from the decorative application of these home-based crafts.  

 

Among his influences are the series Unusual Occupations, a nineteen-thirties program of short subject films, that spotlighted peripheral characters who fashioned odd objects from refuse or materials of little value.

 

He is also interested in the concept of the “old maid” in relation to the unrealistic ideal of family life depicted in the television and film of his youth.  In his mind though the term is gender interchangeable.  For in this time period if Aunt Belle or Uncle Stan were still single in their thirties, they were shown in a sad, comic or sexually subverted light. They were often portrayed spending quiet afternoons and evenings in pursuit of G-rated pleasures creating meticulous, finicky decorative items for a happy home they would never have; as if this activity was enough to satisfy their frustrated physical passions, their unfulfilled romantic dreams.

 

In the end Casuso’s works are more “hobby-esque” than hobby, more “preoccupation” than occupation: the materials, a combination of Home Depot products, sewing or craft store notions and thrift store goods, handled in a nostalgic, not easily identifiable gender-based way.  The object, its layers of labor coming together, showing both time traversed and time whiled away; representing the ephemeral nature of our lives, the ever-changing idea of home life, and the transitory nature of value.